


Puppy Love

by DracoTerrae



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Friends to Lovers, cop!bellamy, puppy cop dropout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 18:12:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13576164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DracoTerrae/pseuds/DracoTerrae
Summary: Bellamy’s precinct had just gotten a new batch of puppies to be trained for the K9 unit.  But there’s one little pup who’s just a little too friendly.  When it’s determined that she’s not cut out for police work, Bellamy adopts her.  And while having a new dog is something unexpected, the reaction of his best friend, Clarke, is really what takes him for a surprise.  He definitely was not prepared for her reaction to his new housemate, and even less so for how it would make him feel.





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

> My lovely Bellarke Valentine, @araniaexumae on Tumblr, said she wanted a modern AU. And with the world as my oyster, this is the modern AU I ended up with. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Inspiration from a news story I saw a long time ago about Gavel, an Australian police dog who was just too friendly to be on the front line, so instead got the promotion to become the Vice Royal Dog, greeter to official visitors to Queensland.

              It was just another boring day at the precinct for Bellamy.  And by boring, he meant filled with paperwork.  Last week they picked up a litter of puppies to begin their training for the K9 unit, so the quiet barks and yips could be heard throughout the day, eliciting a small smile when he started to get too grumpy about the next form he was filling out.

              As he walked out the front door, his shift over, he was greeted by a sight that always brought a smile to his face, no matter how many arrest reports he had to end up refiling because of Murphy’s incompetence.  Clarke leaned against her brown jeep, a dopey smile plastered on her face as she looked at the yard adjacent to the main building.   When she heard his footsteps approaching, she turned to look, giving him the full force of her smile.

              “They’re so adorable!” she cooed.  “Why didn’t you tell me you had the puppies?”  A small frown formed on her face.  “Service dogs are problematic.  You just want to snuffle their little faces, but you know they can’t because their working.  And that’s with normal service dogs.  For some reason police dogs always look so stoic, like they don’t even want you to snuffle their faces.”

              “You’ve given this a lot of thought,” Bellamy teased as she started walking to the driver’s side.

              “Just a problem I’ve come across before,” she replied off-handedly.  “I don’t know if you knew this, Bellamy, but I am definitely a dog person.”

              He laughed as he got in the passenger seat.  “No, you’re a fluffy animal person.  Anything with fur, you want to ‘snuffle.’”

              She cocked her head in thought.  “True,” she finally admitted flashing him a smile.

              “So, you want to say over for take-out when you drop me off?” he asked, hoping to spend as much time as he could with her.  He had long accepted he had a crush on his best friend.  A crush that definitely extended beyond “crush” territory.  But not wanting to risk their friendship, he had yet to mention the fact to her.

              “You sure know the way to a girl’s heart,” she replied.  “Chinese or Mexican?”

              “Whatever you want, Clarke,” he told her, silently wishing it really was as easy as that to find his way into her heart.

              “Mexican it is.  I’m craving one of those veggie burritos, you know, from that place on 14th?”

              He chuckled, “We can definitely do that.”

 

***

 

              It was almost a sense of déjà vu the next day when he left the precinct to see Clarke waiting for him by her car; it made him almost sad that he would be getting his back from Raven the next day.  That’s when he heard the excited yipping from the yard as one of the pups was watching him and begging for attention.

              “Go back to your training, Artemis,” he reprimanded, perhaps not as forcefully as he should.

              The small pup sat and looked at him expectantly, tail thumping on the ground.  He pointed back toward the yard, directing her to return to the company of her fellow canine cadets.  She looked in the direction he pointed, but turned back to him immediately and began following him the best she could along the fence as he walked to the car.

              Clarke’s smothered giggle reached his ears.  She stood with her eyes crinkling as she tried to contain her laughter to the best of her abilities.  “You’ve got a fan,” she teased.

              “Sure, but Artemis should be training,” he threw the last bit over his shoulder as if she was a person who would understand, rather than a dog.

              He got a happy bark in response.

              Clarke’s laughter burst forth with a crescendo.  “She loves you, Bell.  She just wants your attention.  And I’m just guessing here, but you named her, didn’t you?”

              He frowned as he opened the car door to climb in.  “I was hardly going to say, ‘no,’ when Miller asked me to come pick up the litter.  And she’s going to track down criminals or drugs or whatever track their putting her on.  Goddess of the hunt is a fitting name.”

              Clarke laid a hand on his arm, giving his bicep a gentle squeeze.  “I’m not saying it’s a bad name.  Just that you’re partial to her now.”

              “I don’t have favorites.  I don’t even work with the K9 unit.”

              She shot him a bright, knowing smile.  “But she’s your favorite.”

              “Fine, fine.  She’s my favorite.  It’s the big blue eyes, they get me every time,” he said before his brain had fully caught up with his mouth.  The smile still grazing Clarke’s lips said that she took nothing special out of the comment.  He breathed a sigh of relief.

              “So, Chinese tonight?” she changed the topic abruptly.  Maybe she _had_ taken something out of the comment.

              He shook his head to readjust his thoughts.  “How about I make us some homemade Chinese?  Save on some money?”

              She beamed at him, the momentarily awkwardness gone in the blink of an eye.  “The day I turn down your cooking, either Hell has frozen over or you have a doppelganger on your hands.”

              “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’”

              “You’d better,” she said as she started the car.  Maybe the awkwardness had all been in his head; his own worry that she had caught on to his thoughts and felt uncomfortable with it.

 

***

 

              It was a week or so later and he was sitting on his back porch when the door from the house swung open unexpectedly.  He turned to find his best friend on the verge of fuming.  “I had to find out from Octavia?  How could you let me find out from Octavia?  You know how I feel.”

              Bellamy paused for a second, confused as to what she was referring.  But he couldn’t suppress the smile that was growing on his face.  No matter the source of the dramatics, a riled up Clarke was definitely one of his favorites.  It was probably why he had always picked a fight with her when they first met all those years ago.  “And what exactly did you have to find out from Octavia?” he questioned.

              “You adopted a puppy!  You know how much I love dogs and all furry things!  You should have called me immediately,” she lectured as she knelt down to embrace the little German Shepherd pup that had bounded up to her.  Scritching behind the dog’s ears, she began to coo happily.  “You’re such a cutie pie, Artemis.  You know that, don’t you?  You just want all the people to love you.”

              Bellamy was slightly taken aback by the sight.  Over the years, he had seen many sides of Clarke.  Yet, somehow, he had never seen this one, this overly happy and babying side, the one that sported one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen Clarke wear.  He didn’t know why it was striking him so closely, but it was.  Between the huge smile and the loving tone, he could feel it all mirroring back in him, only with her as the target of the affection, not the dog.

              He shook himself out of his wandering thoughts and allowed his brain to catch up with her words.  “That was exactly the problem, actually.  Artemis wanted everyone to love her.  It’s not exactly what we’re looking for in our K9 unit.”

              “So, of course, you had to adopt her.  It probably helped that she was the one you named, too.  You were already attached.” Clarke turned her gaze on him, the same happy delight the puppy brought her shining in it.  Seeing it directed at the puppy was one thing; the dopey smile directed at him was almost constricting his heart.  And she had no idea the effect she was having.

              Bellamy coughed.  “Well, a lot of people at the station live in apartments or have families or other pets.  It just made the most sense that I take her.”

              “And you wanted her.”

              He relented with a smile.  “And I wanted her.  How could I say, ‘no,’ to that little face.”

              “Or those big blue eyes,” Clarke teased in recollection of their previous conversation.

              Bellamy barely suppressed his reaction to look at her.  They always teased, but it stood out to him that she would remember that particular exchange.  No, he was probably just making a bigger deal out of it than he should. To distract himself from his own thoughts, he held out his hand and Artemis eagerly came prancing over.

              Clarke pouted at the loss of her canine companion until Bellamy patted the bench beside him for Artemis to jump up and looked at Clarke with a wordless gesture for her to join them.  As she sat down on the other side of the dog, returning to her petting, she looked up and smiled at him mischievously.  “You know I’m going to be around all the time to play with your new puppy, right?  I hope you’re prepared for that.

              “Spending more time with you?  I’m never not going to be okay with that,” he told her with a light tone, though he knew full well the actual depth to his words.

 

***

 

              And she was truer to her words than Bellamy had ever thought she would be.  When she said she was going to be around all the time, he had thought she was exaggerating, but for the past three weeks, she came by usually five days out of seven.  Not that he was complaining.  That was the opposite of what he was doing.  But the dopey smile Artemis got every time Clarke greeted her made Bellamy feel like he was having heart palpitations.

              “Here again?” he called as he heard his door opening from his spot on the couch.  “Should I be jealous that Artemis is replacing me as your favorite?  Because you definitely didn’t used to come over this often.”

              The dog in question had gone racing to the door as soon as she heard someone on the front step.  He followed after her and found Clarke kneeling on the floor to engage in her usual greeting of the puppy.  “Artemis is the prettiest puppy in the whole wide world.  She’s so pretty and so smart.  And she’s trying to steal the treats I have hidden in this bag,” the last part coming out a little strained as she held the bag aloft, her eyes turning to beg Bellamy for help.

              “Hey, you greet the dog first and brought her cookies, not me.  Who says I’m going to help you?” he teased, leaning against the wall in the foyer.

              Clarke huffed and stood much to Artemis’s dismay.  “I did bring you cookies.  And she greeted me at the door before you did, so she’s gets her hello first.”  She informed him with a smile.  “Hi, Bellamy.”

              “Hi, Clarke,” he returned, taking the bag from her so she could take her shoes off.

              “And the intent was to bring you cookies, so we could eat sweets while we watched _The Great British Bake Off_ , it’s been my latest obsession.  It’s not my fault the bakery had dog treats on the counted and I needed to get them for our little hunter,” she said, bending down to ruffle the pup’s head.

              Bellamy’s brain briefly short-circuited at the domestic image of them co-owning the dog.  “You spoil her,” he muttered, heading toward the kitchen to ensure the bag was out of the dog’s reach.

              Clarke followed after him and leaning on the counter opposite him.  “Like you don’t spoil her.  So, what’s for dinner?”

              “And who said I’m feeding you?  Or that I don’t already have plans tonight and you’re just bargaining in here unannounced and upsetting them?”

              Clarke immediately straightened from where she had been leaning her elbows on the counter, her face looked taken aback.  And if he caught what he thought he caught, a little hurt, too.  “I’m sorry,” she said hurriedly.  “I didn’t know you had plans.  I should have texted or something.  And now I’m remembering Octavia mentioned something about setting you up the last time we were all hanging out together.  You probably have that date.  It _is_ Saturday night.   I’ll just go.  Sorry.”

              Bellamy rushed to put an arm out, pulling against her waist and turning her to face him before she could successfully make a break for the front door.  He looked down at her, eyebrow raised in question.  “You’re usually a lot better at picking up when I’m teasing.”

              She gave him a weak smile.  “Sorry.  I’m just feeling a little off today.”

              “You want to talk about it?” he asked, moving his hand to rest on her shoulder.

              “Not right now,” she shook her head and reached up to give his hand a small squeeze.

              He furrowed his brown in concern as she moved back into the kitchen and began rummaging through his freezer.  There was something bugging her today.  He knew better than to push it; she would tell him when she was ready.  But he didn’t like not knowing.  Was it something to do with work?  Or maybe Abby?  But he was usually the one she would talk to first.  A recess of his brain whispered that it had something to do with him, that was why she wasn’t telling. 

              “Chicken Cordon Bleu?”

              He forced a smile when her voice brought him out of his inner musings.  “Sounds good.  Rice for a side?” he replied, moving toward the cupboards.

              “You read my mind,” she shot him a smile that didn’t quite reach all the way to her eyes.

 

***

 

              A few hours later, they sat on the couch, Artemis curled on the ottoman by their feet, nothing out of the ordinary that would give away the tension from earlier that night.  Well, nothing except, Bellamy’s lingering concern.

              He kept himself intent on the screen as he felt Clarke scoot a closer before dropping her head on his shoulder.  Glancing down, he saw her staring intently at her hands as they picked at a string on the end of one of her sleeves.

              “About earlier,” she said in a small voice.  “Sorry if I was weird.”

              Bellamy shifted his arm from the back of the couch to settle around her shoulder, hugging her a little closer.  “You don’t have anything to apologize for.  And you know you can tell me anything, right?” he replied, keeping his tone low to match hers.

              She nodded, but still didn’t look up.  “It was just something Raven said. Right before I came here…”

              “What’d she say?” he asked tentatively.

              “‘The puppy excuse is getting a little thing,’” Clarke quoted.

              “What’d she mean by that?”

              “That’s that I asked her.  And then she went on this spiel about how I need to stop with the excuses and finally make a move.  Because if I waited too long, someone else was going to…”

              Bellamy instantly jumped to a few excitable conclusions as to what she meant, but he reined himself in before he could let his hopes get up too high.  He forced himself to patiently wait for Clarke to continue.  She squirmed a little, but didn’t try to pull out of his space.  He knew she hated to talk about feelings or anything that risked her getting hurt.  He’d been there for her past hurts.  He knew she was terrified it was going to happen again, even if she had never let herself give word to that fear. 

              “Bell?” Clarke looked up at him through her lashes.  “I like you.  Like really like you.  As more than a friend. I might even love with you.”

              Bellamy beamed down at her, gently tilting her face so he could look directly into her eyes.  “I’m pretty sure I love you, too.”

              The corner of her mouth quirked up into a smile that continued to grow.  “Just pretty sure?”

              He shook his head and leaned down so their lips met in a brief kiss.  “Alright, more than pretty sure.  Probably about one-hundred percent sure,” he told her when he pulled back.

              The smile she now wore was more than he could ever have hoped for.  She surged up to meet him in a more demanding kiss, shifting onto his lap, so to not strain her neck.   He smiled into it, his heart about to burst with happiness.

              A small whine came from near their feet.  Clarke whipped her head around to find the affronted puppy staring at her.  “I’m sorry, Artemis!” she exclaimed hurriedly.  “I didn’t mean to kick the ottoman.”

              Bellamy buried his laughter in the crook of Clarke’s neck.  Artemis simply huffed and turned her head to face the other way.  He pulled back to stare at the amazing woman in front of him and felt her hand trace his jaw, her face giddy with happiness.  “What?” she asked, thumb brushing over his smiling lips.

              “Nothing.  I’m just really happy right now.”

              “Me too,” she smiled, leaning in to kiss him again.  This smile even outdid the one she got while snuffling Artemis. 

**Author's Note:**

> Funny story about finishing the end of this story. While trying to write the last scene, trying to get in the mindset of an emotional love confession, Darth Vader was breathing heavily outside my door and telling me to come to the dark side. Oh, the joys of a living with a four-year-old.
> 
> A thank you to my lovely beta, TheAmazonian, for giving this a look over. 
> 
> And a very special thank you to everyone on the Bellarke Valentines team who put this event together. You all are awesome and we are lucky to have people like you in the fandom to organize things like this.


End file.
